Quote#Politics & Power
The principles which discriminate in politics between good and evil,…
Quote byJohn Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton · 1834–1902
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The History of Freedom in Christianity (1877).
English (original)
The principles which discriminate in politics between good and evil, and make states worthy to last, were not yet found.
— John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
More from John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
The English constitution was excellent until removed by foreign writers into the domain of theory, when in direct contradiction with its nature and origin it came to be admired as a common representative government.
According to the prevailing doctrine, which derives power from the people, and deposits it ultimately in their hands, the state is omnipotent over the individual, whose only remnant of freedom is then the participation in the exercise of …
Almost all that has been done for the good of the people has been done since the right lost the monopoly of power, since the rights of property were discovered to be not unlimited.
We must not pursue science for ends independent of science. It must be pursued for its own sake, and must lead to its own results.
The Catholic notion, defining liberty not as the power of doing what we like, but the right of being able to do what we ought, denies that general interests can supersede individual rights. It condemns, therefore, the theory of the
it is always a delusive freedom, founded on a servitude more or less disguised.